The Jamaican singing group “The Melodians” is highly regarded as one of the most impactful of the Rock-Steady and early Reggae eras. The group hailed from the Greenwich Town area of Kingston and according to reports, it was Trevor McNaughton who had the idea of putting a group together and contacted George Allison, Eddie Fraser, and the then 14-year-old Tony Brevett (a relative of Skatalites bassist Lloyd Brevett), who had already had success in local talent shows. The group was formed, with Brevett taking on lead vocal duties. Bradfield Brown and Renford Cogle also had short stints in the group in its early days, and Cogle became one of the group's main songwriters. The year was 1965 when they came together as a group, at a time when the then “Ska” beat was beginning to slow down. In time, George and Eddie would leave the group and their slots were filled by Trevor McNaughtnon and Brent Dowe.
Early Years
In the early years the group had a weekly gig at the Kittymat Club in Kingston and reportedly made some early recordings with Prince Buster who kept the material as “Specials” for his Voice of The People sound system. As a result, none of these songs were ever released to the public. In 1966, Bertram departed, reducing the group to a Trio.
They moved to Coxsone’s Studio One where they recorded several songs including “Meet Me”, “Lay It On,” “I Should Have Made It Up,” and “Let’s Join Hands.” Their stay with Coxsone was short-lived as the songs they recorded with him did not make an impact and problems with remuneration led to their departure to Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label, as Reid was reportedly providing a far more generous remuneration rate. Their partnership with Reid yielded immediate success with hits such as “You Have Caught Me”, “Last Train To Expo 67”, “Come On Little Girl”, “I Just Know How She Feels”, and a remake of their Studio One hit “Let’s Join Hands.” These recordings established the Melodians as the sweetest-sounding vocal trio on the Rocksteady circuit. It did not take long for problems with Duke Reid over money to surface, causing a premature end to the arrangements with Duke Reid in 1968.
The Sonia Pottinger Years
Around the same period, Sonia Pottinger who had taken over her husband Lyndon Pottinger’s recording business was having quite a buzz with Tip Top Records which became the Melodians’ next stop. They had back-to-back hits immediately with “Little Nut Tree” and “Swing and Dine” both of which topped the local charts. It was during this period with Mrs. Pottinger that the group attempted to forge a relationship with Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson, and the group The Gaylads by establishing their "Links" label. The idea was to provide the group with greater control of their recorded material. They released the singles “Sweet Rose” and “It Comes and Goes” under the arrangement, but the effort did not yield much success and soon faltered.
Immediately after the demise of Links, the trio were briefly linked with Winston Lowe’s newly launched Tramps label where they were given the freedom to produce their own material including ‘When There Is You’, ‘Ring Of Gold’, ‘You’ve Got It’ and ‘Personally Speaking’. They also returned to recording hits with Mrs. Pottinger as well as with Coxsone Dodd and, having resolved their financial wrangles with Duke Reid cut the ever popular ‘Everybody Bawlin”, alongside the lesser known ‘Lonely Nights’, ‘Hey Girl’ and the succinct `What More Can I Say’ for the producer. The Treasure Isle sessions that yielded these sides were immediately followed by a move to Leslie Kong’s Beverley’s label where co-owner Leslie Kong was enjoying unparalleled success in the UK with artistes such as Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff and the Pioneers as they had all crossed over into the British pop listings.
Leslie Kong years
The Melodians’ debut with Beverley’s in 1969 with the celebrated and harmonizingly brilliant "Sweet Sensation", which despite limited national airplay climbed into the lower reaches of the UK pop chart, peaking at number 41 in January 1970, and the spiritual "Rivers of Babylon", which sold more than 75,000 copies on release in the UK; it later became a pop/disco sensation when covered by Boney M and enjoyed international success scoring over a million copies in sales and becoming the second highest selling single in the UK in 1978.
Other successful releases with Kong included "It's My Delight", which was issued by Trojan Records in the UK (where it reached the UK pop chart, in January 1970) "A Day Seems So Long", "Say Darling Say", and "It Took A Miracle." In the midst of their success with Beverley's tragedy struck when in August 1971 the Jamaican music industry lost one of its finest talents when Leslie Kong suffered a massive and fatal heart attack.
Despite the shock, the group overcame the tragedy to record some of their finest material of the period including the Tony Brevett-produced "This Beautiful Land" They also worked with a series of local producers, returning to Pottinger once again to cut two medleys of their old hits "The Sensational Melodians" and "The Mighty Melodians", and later worked with Sid Bucknor releasing "In Our Time,"Warrick Lyn" "You Are My Only Love," Lee Perry "Round and Round" and N.E.Williams "Your Turn To Cry."
Post-Beverlys years
In the early 1970s, the Melodians signed a contract with Byron Lee's Dynamic Sounds company, resulting in the popular "Round and Round", arranged by Lee "Scratch" Perry, and "Without You", arranged by Warwick Lyn. The Melodians recorded the Pre-Meditation album for Pottinger, mostly at Lee Perry's recently opened Black Ark studio, but Pottinger shelved the album for a few years when disputes arose.
In 1976, the Melodians' collective fortunes were revived with the album Sweet Sensations, cut for the producer Harry J, but the group then drifted into semi-retirement, with only sporadic singles appearing during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Meanwhile, during the same period, Dowe continued his solo career, cutting strong singles for a range of producers, including Prince Tony Robinson, Tinga Stewart and Joe Gibbs, along with self-produced work.
On the evening of Saturday January 28, 2006 after a rehearsal in preparation for a performance to take place the following weekend at the Jamaican Prime Minister's residence, Brent Dowe suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 59 years old. The remaining original members Tony Brevett and Trevor McNaughton continued touring in Europe and the US as well as recording in honor of Brent Dowe. Brevett himself would succumb to cancer in Miami, Florida on October 26, 2013. The group's founder Trevor McNaughton, died November 20, 2018, at the Kendrick Rehabilitation Hospital in Hollywood, Florida.
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